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this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2025
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While I like it as a simile, we didn't feed cows to cows - we fed them sheep infected with scrapie, at least that's the theory of how mad cow disease started. I say "we", I wasn't involved in the process, I just live here.
Mad cow disease is caused by prions from dead cow brains infecting the healthy brains of living cows. It's kind of the cow equivalent of Kuru.
Those prions can also infect humans leading to Creutzfeld Jacob syndrome. Prions can also come from wild deer species and infect through venison.
I thought it wasn't just any prions, but specific prions that replicate out of control after some time, depending on genetics. So cows were fed unclean bone meal from sheep and pigs and cows all mixed together, and they think some scrapie infected sheep spine/brain got in there and it spread to cows. Then it spread from there because we didn't think cows could get it and even if they could we were pretty certain humans couldn't get it. But we were wrong.
There is a natural incidence of prions in cows of one in a million, but we have herds this big now.
There's natural incidence of prion disease in humans as well. I'm definitely not an expert and just remembering a video I watched a week or two ago. That the prions from different sources act differently.
Video I watched: Mad cow disease Also watched this one
Yeah, pretty sure you're right. Though I'll admit I've forgotten much more than I know on the topic.